Mini-bars are commonly found in rooms of hospitality establishments throughout the world and are usually stocked with various items such as chocolates, soft drinks, and alcoholic drinks. However, management of mini-bars represents a problematic challenge to hospitality operators and frequently requires a dedicated department in the establishment. Stocking of mini-bars is labour intensive. Up-to-date information relating to consumption of items from a mini-bar by a guest is generally not available at the time of check-out of the guest. Such consumption frequently goes unrecorded, resulting in a high percentage of lost sales. Although problematic to hospitality operators and even unprofitable in certain instances, mini-bars are a necessary amenity that guests expect to find in a hotel room.
Various attempts to solve the foregoing problem have been devised. For example, a fridge with individual compartments for items and micro-switches located in the compartments to detect removal of items from the compartments has been proposed. This disadvantageously necessitates replacement of an existing mini-bar, thus requiring capital expense, room furniture modification, time delays and general inconvenience. Moreover, the micro-switches occupy valuable fridge space, thus limiting overall storage capacity. Air circulation and cooling efficiency are also negatively impacted by the geometry of the compartments and the micro-switches. The micro-switches may also be tampered with, for example, guests may jam pieces of paper in the micro-switch mechanisms in an attempt to remove an item without detection thereof.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,891,755, entitled “System for detecting removal of items from a hotel mini bar and for the automatic charging of the bill of the gas for items removed from the minibar”, issued to Amram Asher on Jan. 2, 1990. The system described in this specification is based on weight measurements which are used to identify items removed by a guest. Disadvantageously, accurate weight sensors such as strain gauges are necessary.
A need exists to provide apparatuses and systems for stock control in mini-bars that overcome or at least ameliorate deficiencies in existing arrangements.